Footnotes

WAGNER PREPARES FOR THE FIRST PERFORMANCE OF THE RING AT BAYREUTH, one of the great events in Western musical history. Although  as here  he was already despatching rehearsal schedules and the like to his performers, at this date many important matters relating to the premiere were not yet settled. On the day before this letter was despatched, his wife Cosima confided in her diary: 'Still no idea where to find a Siegfried; in the afternoon drove out to the theatre, as usual only gloomy experiences, the workers are doing nothing, the orchestral pit still too small, the ground clearance scarcely begun, and in two months' time rehearsals are supposed to begin!'. In the event of course the performances that took place in August the following year at the specially designed Festspielhaus in Bayreuth were a triumph, with not only the Kaiser and Ludwig of Bavaria in attendance, but also Nietzsche, Bruckner, Grieg, Liszt and Tchaikovsky, the latter writing (in his capacity as newspaper correspondent and despite hating the whole event and being snubbed by Wagner) that 'something has taken place at Bayreuth which our grandchildren and their children will still remember'. See illustration overleaf.

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